Librarians discussing tools and methods to enhance learning in the University of Minnesota Libraries. We will explore information literacy, instructional design, assessment, 21st century literacies and more.

Sign In

Recently in Students Evaluation Skills Category

Is the $$ the way to describe peer review? I know that we often talked about the "who" and the "money" when we talk about evaluating websites and sources (e.g. where does Google get its profit?). But this video from SPARC on open access might be another way to go...

"We found no matter where students are enrolled, no matter what information resources they have at their disposal, and no matter how much time they have, the abundance of information technology and the proliferation of digital information resources have made research uniquely paradoxical.

Information is now as infinite as the universe, but finding the answers needed is harder than ever.

Our ongoing research confirms proficiency in information problem solving is urgent, given the dauntingly vast and complex wilderness of information available digitally. As one student in humanities said during one of our focus groups, "What's so frustrating to me about conducting research is the more you know, the more you realize how little you know -- it's depressing, frustrating and suffocating."

When we surveyed undergraduates last spring in a large-scale survey, eight in 10 of our 8,353 respondents reported having overwhelming difficulty even starting research assignments and determining the nature and scope of what was expected of them.

As one engineering student explained, "None of the old-timers -- the old professors -- can really give us much advice on sorting through and evaluating resources ... we're kind of one of the first generations to have too much information, as opposed to too little."

We argue evaluation, interpretation and synthesis are the key competencies of the 21st century. These information-literacy skills allow us to find what we need, filter out what we do not and chart a course in an ever-expanding frontier of information. Information literacy is the essential skill set that cuts across all disciplines and professions.

It is time for many educators to stop lamenting about "these kids today" and retool and prioritize the learning of skills for solving information problems if students are to learn and master critical thinking at all. Or, as one student in social sciences we interviewed told us, "College is about knowing how to look at a problem in multiple ways and how to think about it analytically -- now, that's something I'll use in my life."

Very interesting, short article about strategies in web searching and its effect on problem solving. How does this apply to library searching? How can we help students search/problem solve better?

Here are a few quotes:

the rough estimate from our available data is obvious: users change search strategy only 1% of the time; 99% of the time they plod along a single unwavering path. Whether the true number is 2% or 0.5%, the big-picture conclusion is the same: users have extraordinarily inadequate research skills when it comes to solving problems on the Web.It also highlights a big problem with search today: it doesn't facilitate any conceptual knowledge because it relies on quick in-out dips into websites.

In general, we almost never see people use advanced search. And when they do, they typically use it incorrectly -- partly because they use it so rarely that they never really learn how it works.

For today's Web design projects, we must design for the way the world is, not the way we wish it were. This means accepting search dominance, and trying to help users with poor research skills.

Do young people rely on social media and search engines for all of the answers needed in their daily lives?

In a new research paper from PIL, we found students use online information for decisions in their personal lives, but rely almost as much on family and friends nearly as much.

The everyday life research study includes results of a new statistical analysis about what we call "ubiquitous search engine usage"--when search engines are most likely to be used--and not used--during students' everyday life information-seeking activities.

"This story provides a unique teaching opportunity for faculty and librarians to discuss the issues of peer review and scientific communication with undergraduate students.
First, you have scientists on record saying that basically, the peer review system didn't work as well as we'd like...
Second, you have the controversy about where scientific debate should take place."

"...Precisely because it is so perfectly science-librarianish. It combines an interest and fascination with science and the scientific method with the drive to carry out one of the core missions of the academic librarian. That would be what we call Information Literacy instruction. In other words, helping faculty teach their students about the process of scholarly communication in the sciences...Picking up a bit where she left off, I started to think in a bit more detail about how I could use the issue as kind of a case study in scientific communications and the media in the 21st century." This post includes links to stories that trace the evolution of the story...